Pushing Tin is one of those movies you come out of thinking, "Well, I probably should have done something else with my time, but at least it wasn't wasted." Your only response to the question of "How was it?" is a shrug of the shoulders and a wave of the hand - so, so.

Actually, the acting is great. John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett shine in their roles and are able to make a weak story line watchable. Blanchett especially stands out on screen, even though she isn't leading the show as Queen Elizabeth.

Cusack stars as Nick Falzone, a top air traffic controller in New York City. The job is stressful, but he seems to handle it with over-the-top confidence.

The job of an air traffic controller is to juggle incoming planes as they land at the numerous airports around the city so they don't crash into one another. As they say in the film - it's like Nintendo without a reset button.

Nick's confidence starts to decline when newcomer Russell Bell (Thornton) starts grabbing attention at the office.

He is a quiet, reserved man, but he knows his stuff. Suddenly Russell is hanging out with the guys and begins to move in on Nick's territory.

At a company picnic, the guys are surprised to see Russell with such a beautiful wife, Mary (Angelina Jolie). Nick begins to flirt with the young, unhappy and alcoholic Mary until his winning basketball record is challenged by Russell.

Nick soon meets Mary again at a grocery store, where he finds her loudly crying. To be the nice guy, he takes her out to dinner, sleeps with her and then leaves her high and dry the next day.

Later, she informs him that she told Russell what they did and that the two now are closer. Nick flips out and worries about his wife (Blanchett) finding out, if Russell will kill him and if he can keep it quiet at work.

Russell, however, doesn't say much about it and turns the situation on Nick.

He makes Nick question whether his own wife has been cheating on him with Russell. This drives Nick even madder as he tries to find out while trying to keep his faithlessness a secret.

As Nick gets deeper and deeper in the pursuit of truth, his job, relationships and sanity seem to suffer. In other words, he's not the guy you would want controlling the landing of your plane.

Pushing Tin is original and interesting but becomes boring and slow in some instances.

Again, the acting is great, but the story line isn't strong enough to hold up the big Hollywood names.